50 Fun Facts About King Kong

In the original 1933 film, Kong makes his last stand on top of which New York skyscraper?

Four biplanes shoot him down; the building's lights were dimmed for 15 minutes in 2004 in memory of Fay Wray.

Which actress played Ann Darrow, the 'golden woman' offered to Kong, in the 1933 film?

She recorded all of her character's screams in a single session.

What is the famous final line of the 1933 King Kong, spoken by Carl Denham over the ape's body?

Denham corrects a policeman who says the airplanes did it, closing the beauty-and-the-beast theme Cooper built the story around.

The 1933 King Kong was directed and produced by Ernest B. Schoedsack and which other filmmaker?

Cooper had wanted to make a gorilla film since 1929 and originally hoped to shoot in Africa and on Komodo.

Who created the 1933 stop-motion effects that brought Kong and the dinosaurs to life?

He later won an Oscar for Mighty Joe Young in 1950 and had first proposed Kong by painting a picture of a giant gorilla carrying a woman.

Roughly how tall were the stop-motion Kong models used in the 1933 film?

The armatures were padded with cotton, latex and rabbit fur, which is why Kong's fur seems to ripple from frame to frame.

Which studio produced and released the 1933 King Kong?

The studio was near bankruptcy in the Depression, and the film's $650,000 profit on first release helped keep it afloat.

A book about which animals did Cooper call King Kong's 'most important influence'?

Reading The Dragon Lizards of Komodo gave him the idea of a gorilla fighting giant lizards.

What 1930 hoax 'documentary' about women sacrificed to gorillas is said to have persuaded RKO to greenlight Kong?

Cooper never listed it as an influence, but its huge profits suggested 'gorillas plus sexy women in peril' would sell.

Which thriller writer got screenplay credit for King Kong despite dying a month after delivering a rough draft?

Ruth Rose, who had never written a screenplay, rewrote most of the dialogue and added the love story, but Cooper kept his promise to credit Wallace.

Worried about similarities to King Kong, RKO bought the rights to which Arthur Conan Doyle prehistoric-creatures novel?

Cooper then feared linking Doyle's name to Kong would make it seem stale, and the estate agreed not to be associated with it.

Who composed the score for the 1933 King Kong, one of the first great symphonic film scores?

Reviewers said the music's blare kept audiences 'in a state of turmoil' alongside Fay Wray's screaming.

The 1933 King Kong premiered on 2 March 1933 at the RKO Roxy and which other New York venue?

It opened to rave reviews for its animation and score.

The 1933 novelisation of King Kong fell into the public domain for what reason?

That slip later helped Nintendo defeat Universal's Donkey Kong lawsuit; the film's own US copyright runs to 2029.

In which year was King Kong added to the US National Film Registry?

Scenes cut by censors had been restored in 1970, and Rotten Tomatoes later ranked it the greatest horror film ever.

The 1933 sequel Son of Kong, released the same year, features Denham finding what on Skull Island?

'Little Kong' is less than half Kong's height but still more than twice as tall as a man.

Fay Wray was born on a ranch in which country?

Her family moved from Alberta to Utah when she was a child; her father came from Kingston upon Hull.

A co-director of King Kong (1933) once founded a volunteer air squadron for which country's war against Soviet Russia?

He was shot down and held as a Soviet prisoner of war; he later co-invented the Cinerama widescreen process.

The stop-motion animator of the 1933 King Kong won his only Academy Award for which 1949 giant-ape film?

His young assistant on that film was Ray Harryhausen, who carried stop-motion into the next generation.

Which Japanese studio made King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1962?

The idea grew from a Willis O'Brien outline in which Kong fought a giant Frankenstein monster.

On release in 1962, King Kong vs. Godzilla became what in Japan?

It grossed ¥352 million and remains the most-attended Godzilla film in Japan.

In the 1967 Toho and Rankin/Bass film in which the ape escapes, he battles a robotic double called what?

It was a Toho co-production with Rankin/Bass, spun off from their animated King Kong Show, which had premiered on ABC in 1966.

The 1976 remake replaced the original film's climactic skyscraper with which then-new landmark?

More than 30,000 people turned up one night to be extras for the death scene at the towers.

Which producer, famous for lavish spectacles, made the 1976 King Kong?

He hired TV writer Lorenzo Semple Jr. to script it and cast Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin and newcomer Jessica Lange.

The 1976 remake launched the film career of which actress, who played the castaway Dwan?

She reportedly took some negative publicity for the debut, then went on to win two Oscars.

Who wore the ape suit and physically played Kong in the 1976 film, as well as doing its makeup effects?

Rambaldi's 40-foot mechanical Kong of aluminium, latex, horse tails and hydraulics proved almost impossible to operate.

In the 1976 version, what kind of company mounts the expedition that discovers Kong's island?

Petrox executive Fred Wilson is chasing a suspected oil deposit under a permanent cloud bank in the Indian Ocean.

Besides a Special Achievement Award for effects, how many competitive Oscar nominations did the 1976 King Kong get?

It also picked up two competitive nominations.

Who directed the 2005 remake of King Kong?

Universal first approached him in 1995; he made it after The Lord of the Rings, in his native New Zealand.

Who provided the motion-capture performance for Kong in the 2005 film?

Fresh from playing Gollum, he also appears on screen as the ship's cook, Lumpy.

The 2005 King Kong's budget rose during production to a then record-breaking figure of how much?

Extra visual-effects work and Jackson extending the running time pushed it up from $175 million.

The 2005 King Kong won three Academy Awards, for Best Visual Effects and which two others?

It was set in 1933, the year of the original, and starred Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow.

The 2005 film's Broadway theatre scenes were shot in Auckland's Civic Theatre and an opera house in which city?

The whole production was based in New Zealand, like Jackson's Middle-earth films.

Kong: Skull Island (2017) is set in which year?

Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson star; it was the second film in Legendary's MonsterVerse.

The 2021 MonsterVerse film in which Godzilla and the ape finally fight staged its climactic city battle where?

Adam Wingard directed, and much of the plot takes place in the Hollow Earth, Kong's ancestral home.

In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024), Kong and Godzilla unite against a tyrannical ape called what?

He controls Shimo, a frost-breathing titan, and Kong adopts a young ape named Suko along the way.

In 1982 Universal sued which company, claiming its new arcade ape was a blatant rip-off of King Kong?

The Donkey Kong case backfired: the courts found Universal did not even own exclusive rights to the character.

In the original film, Skull Island is placed in which ocean?

The MonsterVerse later moved it to the Pacific; the 1976 film also used the Indian Ocean.

Which city hosted the 2013 premiere of a King Kong stage musical with the largest stage puppet ever built?

Global Creature Technology built the animatronic-marionette hybrid; a reworked version reached Broadway in 2018.

The 2005 King Kong video game was developed by the Montpellier studio of which publisher?

Michel Ancel, creator of Rayman, led the project.

In the 1933 film, what is the name of the ship Carl Denham charters to reach Skull Island?

Captain Englehorn's freighter also carries Kong back to New York in chains.

How is Kong billed to the Broadway audience when Denham unveils him in New York?

The flash photography that follows sends him berserk.

How does Denham finally subdue Kong on Skull Island so he can be taken to New York?

Kong had just smashed through the village gate after chasing Ann and Jack down a cliff.

Who really wrote the 'Arabian proverb' opening the 1933 film about the Beast and Beauty?

He invented it to set up the theme he had decided to weave into the story when he joined RKO in 1931.

Which dinosaur does Kong kill to save Ann in the 1933 film's most famous fight?

The test reel, made alongside The Most Dangerous Game, also showed Kong shaking men off a log.

How was Kong's roar created for the 1933 film?

Sound man Murray Spivack supplied Kong's 'love grunts' himself, grunting into a megaphone.

Who was hired in July 1932 to rewrite the King Kong dialogue, despite never having written a screenplay?

Rose was Schoedsack's wife and stripped out the sexual-assault scenes from Edgar Wallace's early draft.

The 1976 remake got a sequel in 1986. What word completes its title, 'King Kong ___'?

A loosely adapted animated version, The Mighty Kong, followed direct to video in 1998.

Which actor plays first mate Jack Driscoll in the 1933 King Kong?

Robert Armstrong played showman Carl Denham, the man who drags Kong to Broadway.

How many biplanes take off to attack Kong atop the Empire State Building in the 1933 film?

Jack suggests the planes so Kong can be shot without hitting Ann.